The new year brings better quality lighting choices to California

“In California there are more than 600 million sockets for general service and reflector light bulbs and about half of those are still using old incandescent light bulbs. Approximately 90 percent of electricity used by traditional light bulbs is wasted as heat instead of visible light. The technology of LEDs and compact fluorescents make the light bulb more efficient and last much longer.

To ensure general purpose LEDs continue the trend toward more efficient products without trading off quality features in light bulbs that consumers expect, the Energy Commission adopted standards in 2016. The standards will drive both efficiency and quality improvements, such as minimizing color distortion so that the light bulb can make an object appear as it would under natural light and setting a minimum lifetime requirement of about 10 years.

In California, there are about 16 million small-diameter directional lamps. With the new standards, consumers will save an estimated $250 per light bulb when replacing a small-diameter directional lamp with one that meets the new standard.”